A stylus device is a writing utensil, typically in the shape of a pen, that can be used to interact with a host device, such as a tablet computer. In many implementations, a stylus device interacts with a touch sensitive display that includes a grid of capacitively-coupled electrodes (as part of a digitizer) positioned within an electronic display of the host device, although other mechanisms for communicating between the stylus device and the host device may be employed. In various implementations, an active stylus device can communicate with the digitizer of the host device, whether uni-directionally (e.g., from the stylus device to the digitizer) or bi-directionally.
As improvements in stylus devices and host devices are made, the communications protocols and capabilities of the two devices evolve. However, such evolution can cause communication incompatibility and/or signaling interference between either legacy stylus devices and newer host devices or newer stylus devices and legacy host devices, thereby preventing or impairing accurate communications between the devices.